The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-29
OLD AND NEW WORDS.
Though Not Improving in Purity Lam
guage Is Gaining I'm Variety.

Though Not Improving in Purity, Lam
guage Is Gaining I'm Variety.
In the language of all people there
is in process a sort OF internal war, a
perpetual battle or words for existence
"a survival of the fittest" it may be,
in many cases, though in some it is
rather survival of the most unfit. 1t
is the caprice of men, rather than
natural selection, which causes some
words to weaken and die out, others to
acquire great Importance, and still
others to be twisted and changed out
of all resemblance to their original
meaning. When the people gradually
change the meaning of Il word, they do
not go about it with deliberation, nor
always even use any intelligence in
making the change. Often it is due to
their laziness and their unwillingness
to pronounce n hard word when an easy
one will do the same service.
The result of this Incidence in speech
is that difficult sounds are disappearing
from the languages. The English Ian
guage, for instance. rs written, is full
of letters which represent sounds that
are no longer used. We preserve, in
English, the letters which once repre-
scented sounds, and thus have our
printed pages full of CHS" and other
silent letters. In the Italian, Spanish
and other languages the letters are.
dropped out as fast as they are disused.
and the word is spelled in the simplest
way. In French the lost letter leaves
a sort of footprint behind it, IN the form
of a circumfex accent; cot was once
coSte; etre was once estre, ercQue once
ereSque and so on. TheS cireumfeX
accents, 50 common in Frnch, are like
so many gravestones owe the burial
places of vanished letters
The building up of q word is more
interesting, and it seems more intel
ligent, process than its extinction. No
body can succeed in naking a genuine
word outright; words, indeed, are
coined" as their c'eation is called.
bnt unless they arr wanted, unless
they please the peopb and pass imper-
ceptibly into use, they do not become
real and living words. There are some
words of this class as "boycotting,
for instance, which achieve a sudden
and great popularity because they
meet the momentsry want of a word to
| express something which has not until
then needed expression. When the oc-
casion has passed the word drops out
of use, and if it has lived long enough
to get into dictionary, it is marked
dead, or, what is the same thing, obso-
lete, in the next edition.
Who ever hears now the word "ske-
daddle," which was most serviceable
member of the vocabulary about twenty
years ago?
Then there are other words that
ought to die, but, like worthless crea-
lures, live on. They are sometimes old
words to which, first, ignorance, and
then a perverted popular taste gives II
new meaning. Some time ago, for the
sin is not even on the present genera
ton, some ignorant person used the
phrase, 'derelictin duty 1t sounded
well enough, was adopted by other per-
sons, who were too indolent TO inquire
what derelict meant, and now we sup
pose that not one in a thousand among
our readers who is aware that "derelict
in duty" is as meaningless phrase as
would be an assertion that ones blood
was "sulky," or his mind double
reefed." Derelict is law term. Land
left bare by the retreating sea is dere-
lict, or left. A ship abandoned at sea
is derelict. There is no authority in
any dictionary for giving the word the
meaning of neglectful, though one or
two imaginative writers are quoted
who have used it in the sense of total
abandonment of duty.
Slang has great deal to do in bring
ing forward new words and old words
in new meanings. The language does
not change so much as "a result of the
study and thought of the learned, as it
does under the influence of the im-
pulses and experiences of the common
people. But as long us new ideas are
coming forward, and education is diff
fusing itself among the people, the
language will grow steadily richer. 1t
may not improve in purity, but it will
gain in variety. Youth's Companion.